A Citizen's View from Main Street

Republican Georgia state legislator Bobby Franklin thinks that driver’s licenses impose undue restrictions on the right of citizens to travel. So he’s proposed legislation to stop the state from issuing them.

That’s not the only eyebrow raising legislation Franklin has introduced: he’s also proposed bills requiring the exclusive use of gold and silver as tender in payment of debts by or to the state; a bill seeking to eliminate crop management regulations; another bill banning forced vaccinations; a bill to stop the collection of the Georgia income tax; another to stop all property taxes and yet another to end eminent domain.

He has also sought to abolish the State Road and Tollway Authority, the Department of Health and Human Services and any social services Georgia provides.

In one bill that reads as his philosophical statement on the roots of government, Franklin laments the fall of religious and family authority. The bill — called the “Life, Liberty, and Property Restoration Act” — begins by acknowledging the existence of “an almighty, everlasting, creator God, the God of the Bible, the only God there is.” The bill then notes that God created “four, not one spheres of government”: self-government, family government, church government, and finally “the fourth, and least” — civil government.

I think that the last election may have brought batshit conservatism to critical mass.

This guy is in desperate need of deprogramming. He seems to have lost all understanding of how society works. It takes a real conservative to elect someone who has completely abandoned the Constitution even though he had to have sworn allegiance to it before taking his elected office.

Considering how often they talk about personal responsibility, republicans usually find a way to rationalize evading responsibility for their own actions.

This is one of the most mind-numbingly irresponsible assertions I have ever heard. After all the “personal responsibility” lectures, now they give us the “hell no to responsibility, God won’t let us fail” line? No wonder they are so cool to the START treaty.

Given the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and the growing demand for natural gas, and a public programmed to believe we have easy access to huge reserves if only the government would “get out of the way”, the republicans are poised to give license the the oil industry to literally destroy this country from the ground water up.

Republicans keep coming up with new ways to hurt this country beyond the wildest dreams of our worst enemies, and still make the ideas popular with the masses.

The more religious zealots strengthen their grip on their spiritual world and loosen their grip on the physical world, the more they fit the definition of insane.

How is John Shimkus any different from a suicide bomber, when it comes to personal responsibility and concern for consequences?

Liberals and moderates have had a hard time protecting our education system from theocratic indoctrination.

Kansas is infamous for constantly changing the definition of “science” to add or subtract religion from science classes. The value of their diplomas has been discounted by the unreliability of their educational basis.

And of course there was the case of Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al in Pennsylvania.

Then there is the cult-style home schooling by Christian fundamentalists, evangelicals, and born-agains who do not live in theocratic districts.

School vouchers that weaken public education by diverting public funds to private schools.

The failure of abstinence-only…

Do not pretend that liberals and moderates have had a free hand. The country would be better off if they had.

Texas is beginning the conversion of public education into a Christian version of Madrasahs. This reduction in standards and unconstitutional embrace of religion is a major blow to future American competitiveness.

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
– Sinclair Lewis

This seems to have been a rally of people running on emotion and a vague understanding of what they support and what they oppose. A group of people who have not thought consciously about the American Dream until they felt it slipping away. And along comes Glenn Beck, a conservative shock-jock turned revivalist preacher/snake oil salesman, telling them it is patriotic to do as he says, to follow his lead. It’s OK to be a religious zealot. You do not need facts or comprehension if you have faith. You need to restore the dream. Not the dream of MLK. Not the American Dream. The dream of theocracy, of One Nation Under God. The Christian God. The Republican God.

I look at the crowd, and I see people literally and figuratively wrapping themselves in the Flag. Paraphernalia Patriots trying to reassure themselves that they are the true Americans who represent the will of the people. People who know what’s best for the country based on their emotions and “common sense“, and not a deep understanding of the problems we face as a nation. Our Country, Right or Wrong. One Nation, Under God. Give Me Liberty, or Give Me a Gun. Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition. God Bless America, the land of Sloganites and Sheeple.Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

About

Like most people, I spent the first part of my life focused on education, building a career, and building a life. It left little time to pay close attention to politics. But with the turn of the decade, the turn of the century, the turn of the millennium, I saw evidence of a change in the country so radical that I could no longer ignore it. It is time for the silent majority to be silent no more, and this is my contribution to our future as a nation.